


The Death of Lord Azulon

by avrelia



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Meta, Not really a story, Ursa will give you poison for free if you prove it is for the good cause, auntie Mura will sell you poison, imagine me in Sokka's detective hat, no cactus juice was drunk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:15:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27787351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avrelia/pseuds/avrelia
Summary: Initially it was  a short rant about motivation and opportunities to kill Fire Lord Azulon, but then it grew longer and sillier. While still mostly about examining the possible opportunities to kill Azulon. Just with more cactus juice.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	The Death of Lord Azulon

**Author's Note:**

> One of the popular criticism of the AtLA comic novel The Search was that Ursa didn't kill Azulon by herself, but gave poison to Ozai instead, to do what he wishes with it. I don't doubt Ursa - even as depicted in The Search would have loved to kill Azulon personally, and as painfully as possible, but it was, most likely impossible.

The Death of Lord Azulon.

Dear Reader, let’s don our Detective hats, lit up our pipes and put away that enticing glass of cactus juice. We are here to solve a gruesome murder of the Fire Lord Azulon.

We need to find motivation and opportunity to do so.

Ok, the motivation is easy – who wouldn’t want to kill Azulon? He lived a long life, more than 90 years, and for most of this years he lead the war of the Fire Nation against the rest of the world. Many in Earth Kingdom had wished for his death, both Water Tribes wouldn't mind killing him. If any air nomads were ever found they might have been rather pissed off at him, too. In fact, there were many attempts on his life, each and everyone successfully thwarted. Except the last one, when he peacefully went to sleep and never woke up. Initially it was attributed to his age and frailty that came wit hit. However, some other suspicious circumstances led some people to suspect a foul play. Those suspicious circumstances included:

\- Azulon’s demand for Ozai to kill his firstborn, prince Zuko. It was made in private, but the Fire Palace one is rarely as private as it seems.  
\- the disappearance of Ozai’s Ursa in the same night as Azulon went to sleep for the last time and subsequent survival of prince Zuko and   
\- Ozai becoming the Fire Lord instead of his older brother, heir presumptive, prince Iroh.

Now, Ursa had a clear motive to kill her father in law, but what opportunities would she have? Azulon was highly suspicious, distrustful and didn’t let anyone close – see above about all the people who might want to kill him. Suppose, Ursa wanted to use any kind of weapon (or firebending, if she could) to murder in secret – not only she would have trouble to find him alone, she would also be against a skilled firebender, and even if she could kill him, she would not be able to do it quietly. Suppose she stroke him down silently, from behind, there would still be a body with a flesh wound, and the obviously unnatural death.

Let us consider the poison. No, not the Cactus Juice! Where did this obsession even came from? Like any self-respected noble lady in the Fire Nation Ursa could have some deadly poison in her disposal for domestic uses, or means to get some. (For all your domestic needs may I recommend you Mura’s Fire Flower shop?)

Having had the poison in her possession, how would Ursa administer it? One might imagine her marching in and stuffing the poison down the throat of the elderly fire lord and laughing as he felt the death in his guts. It is a pleasant imagine, but as unrealistic as a… some unrealistic thing. Why would Azulon let her to come close enough? Why would he be alone? And even if she to give him a glass of water, why would he take it from her? He, who just have ordered the death of her son? Azulon is too smart for this. It’s not that he doesn’t do mistakes – he’s just made one. But not trusting any new people with his food and drinks would have been a matter of routine for him.

So, how to administer the poison? Through food or drink would be the easiest – if you have a reliable way to get to them without suspicion. There are of course poison darts, air, cosmetics, clothes, candles, etc. but it all presumes a long preparatory period, and Ursa had very little time between her motivation to kill Azulon became urgent and his death. 

I see the only way Ursa could administer poison by herself was if she was a well trained assassin or had loyal servants who were ready to die for her, or whom she had power to make silent. Which would be nice, but we have no evidence whatsoever she had. 

There was another person who benefited immediately from Azulon death, and had both loyal enough servants, army, Fire Sages, and the power to threaten them, to insure their loyalty or to kill if the loyalty and silence couldn’t be assured. It is, of course, Ozai. He knew his father’s habits and routines, he had his people everywhere (he had to – how else he managed to become Fire Lord immediately following the death of Azulon), and he could just kill an inconvenient servant after the fact. He definitely had access to poison, too. But he didn’t have an urgent need to kill his father right now. After all, he didn’t really mind killing his son. And his father still had some time to die by himself. 

But the involvement of his wife added momentum and allowed to put all possible blame to her. Win-win! 

In conclusion, it looks like the strongest motivation was Ursa’s, but all opportunities were Ozai’s. So Azulon died due to collusion of his son and his daughter in law, and because of his parenting mistakes. Seriously, never presume that you are all-powerful.

Better give me some of your cactus juice to try. The storm is coming, and I am tired.


End file.
